The first thing that occured to me is that one could potentially swap books 4&5. After the victory at Celwynvian, while the regular elven warriors are cheering the PCs as heroes, the sortve “Men in Black” working for the Winter Council show up and bag ‘em, because they’re outsiders who’ve seen Drow. Queen spares their life and some version of Book 5 plays out, but with Allevrah as the already corrupted Councilor. I guess Auramesties would be alive too. So bing boom, curse her sudden but inevitable treachery, and the players see Allevrah become a drow before she BAMFs the heck out. Then into Book 4, but the players are trying to… catch her in Zirnakaynin/find evidence in Zirnakaynin?
That may not be the way to go about it or y’all may find the idea in general too half-baked, but since I believe an AP’s only as good as its BBEG, I’d love to have as many opportunities as possible for them to actually see Allevrah and what she’s about ahead of time, including potentially this really life-altering moment.
Your thoughts are so so welcome. Appreciate those who read this regardless.
How attached are you to the Dark Fate in general? Because if you remove that entirely, you don't have to reveal it and can play up other motivation which would be easier to sprinkle into earlier books.
I'll be honest: as a player, the whole Hialin's transformation thing just didn't work for me. It was supposed to be this big dramatic thing, but I was thinking "... really?" And that's excluding the racist undertones in "Elf that gets evil enough becomes dark skinned and is now a supervillain."
Reversing the books could definitely work, because you could find her in Zirnakayan and chase her to where she's doing her thing, and it would make sense. Maybe you expose her as not really a Drow at all but pretending to be one to further her plot, and that's why she has to flee, but she already has what she needs to enact the plan so you have to give chase.
It also means you don't get sent to Zirnakayan by Elves after book 3, then come back and get screwed over by Elves who were supposed to support you but didn't... only to get sent off to some other Elves who don't really take you seriously. (I really hated book 5.)
I am currently running SD for my group. We are getting to the end of Thorn's End. I decided to rewrite the Dark Fate as a ritual that a person intentionally engages in instead of a spontaneous event. The ritual culminates in the target engaging in a a final profane act of devotion to a Demon Lord.
For Hialin, his final profane act is the pulling of the Maleficus Spike to allow the demons to kill the inhabitants of Thorn's End. After the fight and the Spike is restored, I expect the PCs to go to Hialin's chambers and find the ritual instructions which he took from Allevrah.